Billionaires push back against Trump on immigration

By Cedar Attanasio

Updated 9:09 pm, Thursday, August 4, 2016

BRIDGEPORT—While Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump is pledging to deport immigrants as a centerpiece of his campaign, two fellow New York billionaires are making the case for letting them stay.

On Wednesday, the group held a teleconference and “Digital Day Of Action” focused on Connecticut, and released aggregated research on the state’s immigrant population.

The report estimates that around 130,000 immigrants live in Connecticut without legal permission. That’s about 4 percent of the population.

In 2014, such workers made up nearly one-fifth of the labor in certain industries — 17 percent of hotel and restaurant workers, 15 percent of administrative employees and 14 percent of those in the construction.

Broadening the discussion

The business focus of the group and its founders adds another facet to pro-immigrant advocacy efforts, whose Latino- and Asian-focused groups often dominate headlines and direct action on human rights issues related to immigration.

“Unfortunately, one of the ways in which we can move our argument better is by having those people who can cater to the needs of, you know, white male Republicans,” said Julio López Varona, lead organizer of the Bridgeport-based Make the Road CT, who is from Puerto Rico. “In that sense, it’s definitely a welcome voice to the discussion.”

On Capital Hill, Politico reporter Seung Min Kimdescribed The Partnership for a New American Economy initiative as “giving cover to GOP lawmakers on the issue,” which has split the GOP between Trump supporters who want to get tough on immigration and party leaders who want to diversify electoral outreach.

“I understand why some Republicans might want to loosen up on immigration laws,” said Mike Garrett, Chairman of the Bridgeport Republican Party. “It’s based on expediency, that they want to somehow reach out to Hispanic voters, those Hispanic ethnic groups that tend to exploit the open borders of the U.S.”

Those groups, he pointed out, do not include Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens and the largest group of Hispanics in Bridgeport.

“An argument could be made that the Puerto Rican people are victimized by the liberalization of immigration laws, that an illegal immigrant can take advantage of the markets and underbid an African American or a Puerto Rican and put people like this out of business,” Garrett said.

Disagreement about jobs

He agreed with with New American Economy proposals to maintain or expand temporary agricultural visas, yet he views other jobs as something closer to a zero sum game.

Like Trump, Garrett is skeptical of H1-B visas for foreign workers. According to the New American Economy report, the top cities for H-1B visas in Connecticut are Hartford, Stamford and Danbury, in that order.

In Garrett’s view, there are only so many jobs to go around.

“I see America as a lifeboat,” He said. “You have people in the lifeboat; when you get too many people in the lifeboat the entire lifeboat will sink and everyone will parish. We can’t get into a situation like that.”

Immigration advocates disagree.

“There are a lot of jobs that Americans cannot or will not do,” said New American Economy Executive Director Jeremy Robbins, from New York in a phone interview. “In the very short term there might be a few people who get jobs. But (reducing competition in the labor force) is highly destructive in a globalized economy.”

While he welcomed the NEA’s economic messaging, López Varona cautioned against “dividing people based on who is more or less (economically) productive.”

Garrett also resisted a purely economic analysis, saying that part of his opposition to immigrants comes from resistance to cultures rooted in the “Third World.”

In the coming weeks, Connecticut residents might see the NEA’s ads, but they won’t be on TV. Instead, organizers say, they will target specific groups of media users on Facebook and Twitter.

That social media effort is two-way, not just advocating, but also collecting stories through user-submitted videos that may be recirculated later.

It’s unclear how opponents might hit back with their own message.

“I can tell you as far as I know there is no organized opposition,” said Garrett. “I would anticipate, though, that there would be pushback.”